From the Tapeworm Diet and the Air Diet, to the Apple Cider Vinegar Diet, and Cookie Diet, we’ve witnessed wacko

Steer clear, needle-phobes: This eight-week diet, which originally hit the weight-loss scene back in the 1970s, combines injections of human chorionic gonadotropin—along with a very low 500-calorie daily diet for shockingly rapid weight loss, explains Bethany Doerfler, M.S., R.D., clinical dietitian at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Human chorionic gonadotropin, also called HCG for short, is a hormone that women naturally produce while pregnant and is for use in treating infertility.

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of the HCG weight-loss diet claim that taking syringe to skin (each shot costs $250 to $600!) with 125 units of HCG for six out of seven days per week for eight weeks speeds up metabolism and breaks down body fat. Meanwhile, cutting calories speeds up HCG diet results even more. (Speed up your progress towards your weight-loss goals—safely!—with Women's Health's Look Better Naked DVD.)

If the shoot-up-to-shed concept doesn’t raise enough red flags, the HCG weight-loss diet comes with plenty of other oddities: You can only eat two 250 calories meals per day consisting of 3.5 ounces of meat, one vegetable, and a slice of bread, you can’t exercise at all, oil is a no-go, only one tablespoon of milk is allowed every 24 hours, and body lotion is on the banned list, too, according to the American Society of Bariatric Physicians official on the HCG diet results. Oh, and no cosmetics other than lipstick and eyebrow pencil can be used without “special permission”, according to the . Yeah, pretty wacky…

When the diet hit a peak in popularity in the 1970s, a published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition all the way back in 1973 proved that the diet was (and still is) ineffective. And a second , published in 1990 in the South African Medical Journal showed that HCG is no more effective than a placebo.

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Problem is, despite the scientific community's long-held outrage, people who follow the diet lose weight (starve yourself, and that will happen!), which means that people mistake the diet as an effective weight-loss program, says board-certified family and bariatric physician, Spencer Nadolsky, M.D., a diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and author of The Fat Loss Prescription. “But the HCG injections don’t contribute or augment the pound-shedding process, nor do they counteract the negative effects of a super-low calorie diet like a slowed-down metabolism or muscle loss,” he adds.

After all, going as low as 500 calories per day does a number on the body. It results in losing weight primarily from muscle, rather than fat, which in turn sets the body up for a slowed metabolic rate and weight gain. And since the diet is only temporary, you will gain everything back—and then some, Nadolsky says.

Plus, while exercise is a necessary part of any healthy weight-loss results, this diet completely removes it from the equation because, when you're only eating 500 calories per day, you won't hardly have the energy to roll out of bed in the morning, let alone exercise. But no exercise (especially no strength training) means even more muscle loss.

The diet also pretty much guarantees deficiencies in nutrients like protein, fat, and various vitamins and minerals, says Doerfler.

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The current scientific evidence suggests that HCG is not only ineffective for weight loss, but that it’s also unsafe. “I have not and never will recommend the HCG diet because there are other proven ways to lose weight without messing with your body's hormonal balance, or risking side effects,” says Nadolsky. One study in the Journal of Dietary Supplements found that HCG injections are associated with headaches, blood clots, hair thinning, breast tenderness, constipation, and depression.

Ready for another red flag? Consider this: Any OTC HCG weight-loss products marked as over-the-counter (OTC) or homeopathic, are not only not FDA approved, they’re . It’s even illegal for doctors to prescribe HCG for off-label uses, such as for weight loss. That means that, even if the hormone is injected by a licensed professional, if it’s injected for reasons other than fertility, you and you doc are crossing an ethnically-ambiguous line.

That’s probably why the FDA requires that even approved HCG drug fertility products (perhaps more recognizable by their brand names, Pregnyl and Novarel) include the following statement about the use of HCG for weight loss:

“HCG has not been demonstrated to be effective adjunctive therapy in the treatment of obesity. There is no substantial evidence that it increases weight loss beyond that resulting from caloric restriction, that it causes a more attractive or ‘normal’ distribution of fat, or that it decreases the hunger and discomfort associated with calorie-restricted diets.”

The bottom line: If you’re considering the HCG diet, stop. Any HCG diet results aren’t worth it. It’s extremely, expensive, not sustainable, potentially dangerous.“It’s hard to rally behind any diet that’s only eight weeks in length, so overly restrictive, and fraught with science-proven side effects,” says Doerfler.